Round Bottom Road Bridge

Paul,

Looks like I'm keeping you busy!

Regarding your guess on the U.S. 50 bridge, somewhere over the years I heard the steel truss at St Philomena came from downstream at 50. This would fit your theory. I suppose the only question would be if the lengths were similar?

The Olive Branch truss really broke my heart, it was a magnificent structure (even in the dark) and I could not believe it was gone when I returned with a camera.

Check out the Clermont Historical Society webpage, they have multiple covered bridges for the county. Of particular note are the Red Bridge and Jackson Pike Bridge, two locations that I know still have the old abutments.

Rick,

I added in the bridges you mentioned as well as a few others I started uncovering information about. Unfortunately the two steel bridges you remembered were replaced in 1990 and 1991, so I couldn't access any NBI records to get their dimensions or build dates. Then I got interested and began adding in some other lost bridges over the East Fork that showed up in the old NBI. Interestingly, the covered bridge on 50 was lost all the way back in 1888....I'm guessing it was replaced by a one-lane bridge which was probably replaced by the truss you remember.

Regarding the old Round Bottom bridge, I haven't been able to unearth anything regarding construction in the 80's....my guess is that this bridge was not that well built considering it only lasted 45 years and so it may have been a rehab of sorts. It seems to have been part of a disturbing trend of modern bridges not even lasting half a century....two of the newest bridges in my county replaced spans that were only in their 30's.

Hey Paul,

Speaking of sending you looking down a trail...

If you check out the images I spoke of on HA, just follow Binning Road until it intersects Olive Branch-Stonelick Road. At this point there was a rickety steel truss that crossed East Fork, and a little further up there was a truss that carried U.S. 50 over Stonelick Creek.

Both bridges were lost about the same time, late 80's/early 90's. The Olive Branch truss was a two-spanner and made more noise than the Harshaville Covered Bridge. We came across it in the dark, it was quite the experience. The bridge on 50 was your typical (Parker?) U.S. highway truss, but apparently many moons ago there was a covered span at this same crossing.

By the time I grew enough sense to go back with a camera in the early 90's, they were gone.

For me, the 1970 image on HA worked best.

Paul,

Yes, the bridge just recently re-opened. We were musing about the fact it was not that old, now I understand what they were doing.

But now I am curious what was going on in the mid-80's? I came across this one night riding around with college friends, one of them simply said they were replacing the old steel bridge that had been there. But after checking out HA, the truss bridge is evident in the 1970 image, but the '84 and '85 images look like the UCEB.

Because of whom I was with and what we were doing, my memory is circa '85 or '86. I never saw the site in the daylight, but it seemed the road was closed at the junction of 50 for some time. I wonder what was up? It would seem the UCEB has required a lot of maintenance in a short period of time.

Hey Rick,

I followed your lead about this bridge and though I couldn't locate a photo, I was able to find a build date, rather to my surprise. It seems Clermont County replaced the bridge that took the place of the truss just this year and there was a little info on that site. I didn't find anything about it being replaced in the 1980's, however; the replacement site indicated that the old truss was replaced by concrete beams on the original abutments in 1976, which is what the NBI seems to hint at as well.

Either way, nice lead and thanks for sending me looking down this trail!